« O’Brien (…) especially enjoys discussing U2, who appear to be Radiohead’s third-biggest musical influence (the first two being the Smiths, whom all five members love unequivocally, and the Pixies, from whose records Jonny Greenwood learned how to play guitar) »

— Spin / juillet 2003

Sam- How did you start playing the guitar? Why did you pick the guitar in the first place?

E- That’s probably because of two things that happened at the same time. I saw a poster of The Jam about 1979, a picture of the three of them: Paul Weller with his Rickenbacker was so amazing, he’s jumping and that image was really really strong. And the other thing was really The Police, Andy Summers, when I heard that it was like woah! I connect with that! And then it was listening to things like Johnny Marr.

S-That’s why you have a Rickenbacker?

E- That’s was why the first guitar I wanted after the record deal was a Rickenbacker, because of that, yeah

S- You mentioned Paul Weller of The Jam, Andy Summers of The Police, Johnny Marr, Peter Buck as being determinating to you to start to play the guitar. Is it because you wanted to be like them ?

E- I didn’t want to be like them, but I liked what they were doing, they were quite different players but I liked what they were doing. They weren’t like guitar solos, they were like space, great.

‘We’re still in our same classes and years really,’ the elder Greenwood grimly decides. ‘The thing about having been together for such a long period is that there are some heinously embarrassing group shots from ten years ago when we were in adolescence with varying styles of haircut and demeanour which would now be openly laughed at in the street.’
During this era, of course, the quiff was king (you’d literally take a photograph of Morrissey to the barber and say, I want it like that’) and if On A Friday resembled The Smiths visually, they had yet to find a foothold musically.

“Johnny Marr is a God, he is The Man,” enthuses Ed. “I went back to my Smiths records and realised that Johnny Marr is the most ego-less guitarist you’ve ever heard. I think that The Edge and Neil Young are great as well, but Johnny Marr above all. The first time I heard The Smiths, the guitars blew me away: everything he played was so beautiful, so understated, so technically amazing. And he never played any solos and I love that. I don’t like solos. I also love the textured way he played. I’ve subconsciously been ripping off Johnny Marr all the time, and not playing as well, either. He is the Don – he influenced all of my generation.

There were four of them: there was Will Sergeant from Echo And The Bunnymen, there was Johnny Marr, Peter Buck and The Edge. They kind of gave you new hope due to their unique sounds. And out of them, Johnny Marr is the one who gets the gold medal – just.”

And is that just his opinion or the general opinion in Radiohead? “That’s the general opinion of all guitarists in England,” he laughs. “No – actually I’m speaking on behalf of all 32 rock guitarists in Oxford.”

« My suggestion for OK Computer’s follow-up had been to say, Let’s go back top the well-crafted three-and-a-half minute song. I came from idolising The Smiths in the 80’s and I thought that would be the shocking thing to do. It was really difficult because, as a musician, I express myself more emotionally then cerebrally. »

« (..).But then you’ve got some quite straight-ahead songs like »Knives Out,« where we just enjoyed the fact that you’ve got five minutes of music that doesn’t really change, and it’s very…In a way it’s trying to be the Smiths or something. So, you know, we’ll try anything ; we’re shameless like that. ».

What do you play as warm-up exercises?
Covers, mostly. At one point, we were doing Stone Roses songs really fucking badly [laughs]. And we played songs by The Smiths, and Magazine, just jamming stuff. In a sense, Knives Out is our nod to The Smiths. Ed played Knives Out to Johnny Marr a while ago, and he liked it.

I Know we made a huge impression on the next generation of musicians. Ed O’Brien from Radiohead sat me down a couple of years ago in a barn, on top of a mountain in New Zealand and played me the then unreleased Knives Out. It was an unbelievable experience; I was beyond flattered and quite speechless- which takes some doing. He explained to me that with that song they’d tried to take a snapshot of the way I’d done things in The Smiths- and I guess you can hear that in it.”

How do you feel about the new grown-up British rock bands – people like Radiohead or Coldplay?
Well I certainly envy the way they’ve been promoted, because I have never experienced that. With Coldplay, if you fail with that amount of promotion you must be pretty atrocious. They have been hammered into American society. The music bystifies me, because I don’t understand why I have the monopoly on the word « miserable. » Both of those bands sound very unhappy, with not a sign of a witty lyric. I might be wrong but I don’t understand how they’ve escaped that accusation. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed their records, no.

…In the driveway, he asked a favour. He wanted to modify a few things he said. « Please don’t have me say anything unpleasant about Coldplay and Radiohead, » he said. « There’s no point to it, it just looks silly and mean. They’re perfectly good bands, they’re just not to my taste. »
You called them Oldplay and Radiodead.
« I know. But I say a lot of things I don’t mean. »
And that was something I’d never heard from Morrissey before.

« The first time I ever saw Thom, he was jumping over a car. » This is not something I expected Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien to say, but he appears to be quite serious. « Thom was an amazing gymnast in high school, » he continues. « Nobody knows that about him, but you can get a sense of it just by watching him move around. He’s really strong. He did this handspring right over a car. It’s like how Morrissey was a great long-distance runner in high school–nobody knows that, either. »

« O’Brien (…) especially enjoys discussing U2, who appear to be Radiohead’s third-biggest musical influence (the first two being the Smiths, whom all five members love unequivocally, and the Pixies, from whose records Jonny Greenwood learned how to play guitar) »

a harder day
sleepy now
11pm
we are pulling out pins at the moment
and hair
then
stcratching heads a little
it is always a good scratch when you get uprethinking ‘ suit dont fit’
like a fast bad dreammorrissey stayed in the room im in
ooooo he was here for three months were here for six daysgoing out on bikes up hill with no gearstalking a lot about The Beat’yes im counterfeit
im not proud of it’watched chris cunninghams video with Aphex twin off the net ‘rubber jonny’
felt ill’you wouldnt even know it it came sat down next to you and talked into the microphone’thom

I think it’s a really fantastic idea because it puts the responsibility back on people’s own consciences and deals with people as grown ups. It’s not hiding behind any corporate nonsense, it’s just saying ‘this is the way it is, let’s get on with it’. Everyone knows you can get your music for free, so let’s see if you really want to show the band your appreciation.

C- You like The Smiths, so do you still listen to The Smiths, or Morissey?

E- Humm, occasionally I listen to things like that, I don’t know, I mean, I might hear it on the radio but no, I wouldn’t play a Smiths record or aMorissey album nowadays, sometimes, very, very occasionally.

C- Do you think it didn’t age well?

E- No, once I was checking in a hotel and in the reception they played music, and they played This Charming Man by The Smiths and it sounded amazing you know, and maybe it is that I’ve heard this so many times, it’s not like it aged, I may wanna hear something else.